Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics: Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore of the Plant KingdomFolkard, Richard
History
Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics: Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore of the Plant Kingdom
Folkard, Richard
Plants -- Folklore
Dean Stanley tells us that “on the heights of Ephraim, on the central
thoroughfare of Palestine, near the Sanctuary of Bethel, stood two
famous trees, both in after times called by the same name. One was the
Oak-tree or Terebinth of Deborah, under which was buried, with many
tears, the nurse of Jacob (Gen. xxxv. 8). The other was a solitary
Palm, known in after times as the Palm-tree of Deborah. Under this
Palm, as Saul afterwards under the Pomegranate-tree of Migron, as St.
Louis under the Oak-tree of Vincennes, dwelt that mother in Israel,
Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, to whom the sons of Israel came to
receive her wise answers.”
Since the time when Solomon cut the Cedars of Lebanon for the purpose
of employing them in the erection of the Temple of the Lord, this
renowned forest has been greatly shorn of its glories; but a grove of
nearly four hundred trees still exists. Twelve of the most valuable of
these trees bear the titles of “The Friends of Solomon,” or “The Twelve
Apostles.” Every year the Maronites, Greeks, and Armenians go up to the
Cedars, at the Feast of the Transfiguration, and celebrate mass on a
homely stone altar erected at their feet.
In Evelyn’s time there existed, near the tomb of Cyrus, an
extraordinary Cypress, which was said to exude drops of blood every
Friday. This tree, according to Pietro della Valla, was adorned with
many lamps, and fitted for an oratory, and was for ages resorted to by
pious pilgrims.
Thevenot and other Eastern travellers mention a tree which for
centuries had been regarded with peculiar reverence. “At Matharee,”
says Thevenot, “is a large garden surrounded by walls, in which are
various trees, and among others, a large Sycamore, or Pharaoh’s Fig,
very old, which bears fruit every year. They say that the Virgin
passing that way with her son Jesus, and being pursued by a number of
people, the Fig-tree opened to receive her; she entered, and it closed
her in, until the people had passed by, when it re-opened, and that it
remained open ever after to the year 1656, when the part of the trunk
that had separated itself was broken away.”
Near Kennety Church, in the King’s County, Ireland, is an Ash, the
trunk of which is nearly 22 feet round, and 17 feet high, before the
branches break out, which are of enormous bulk. When a funeral of the
lower class passes by, they lay the body down a few minutes, say a
prayer, and then throw a stone to increase the heap which has been
accumulating round the roots.
The Breton nobles were long accustomed to offer up a prayer beneath the
branches of a venerable Yew which grew in the cloister of Vreton, in
Brittany. The tree was regarded with much veneration, as it was said to
have originally sprung from the staff of St. Martin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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